USA-CZE Smackdown

I intentionally took a day away from the blog so I wouldn't entirely berate the entire US Men's Team for their performance yesterday. Thought it would be a good idea to let the initial emotions take a natural cool down.

So, let's start with the part of the day when hopes and confidence in our team was still high. After arriving at Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof about 4 hours before kick off, I met up with a friend from Winder who, with his crew of 12, had already joined all the Yanks in the streets. It was a really cool feeling seeing so many USMNT faithful out and about, chanting it up. Here's what greeted US Fans as they left the train station:

Captain America and a flying Elvis also made a special appearance:

We started making our way to the stadium (Veltins Arena, where Schalke plays) and only one Tram line was taking people to the stadium. It was about a ten stop ride, so walking was "futile." Not to mention, the Trams they were jamming fans into were only 2 cars long. I was dumbfounded. Here was the situation at the Tram stop:

Getting into the stadium also was not the most logical thing. I walked around the entire stadium looking for my Yellow Sector entrance...I graduated college so I know I can read signs, but I literally came full circle. Anyhow, here's my persective on the field (only complaints were that there was a netting hanging behind the goal and I was rammed up against some sort of crowd security divider - see second dazed and confused looking photo of me below):

Soon enough, the US goalkeepers took the pitch for warmups and Kasey Keller got a very warm welcome. He was far away from where I was sitting, but I figured it was worth a quick snapshot:

Then the entire team came out for warmups and I immediately noticed that 10 guys were being led through exercises by the team's French fitness coach, so I figured that was the starting 10. I about @#$% my britches because I thought I saw Brian Ching warming up with the group. Alas, it was Mastroeni:

Somehow, the organizers knew where the roudiest fans would be and put what seemed to be Sam's Army in the section with the crowd security dividers, right next to me. Don't know if you can see it, but my favorite American sign is the one that says, "Just Married. Go US!" Please say you get it:

And here's the kickoff in front of a sold out Veltins Arena (52,000), the crazy Czech fans seen in red in the corner:

Now, because of the way we played and because I get WAY into the game, I didn't really take any match pictures. So, for now, I'm going to fast forward past the weak play and letdowns and show all the post game pictures. Believe me, I'll be getting my rant on.

So, I literally sat in my seat for about 20 minutes after the loss trying to figure out what I just witnessed. Then all of a sudden the US subs took the field to run through some warmups with the fitness coach. I was so hoping the starting 11 was being punished for their poor showing. Among the noteables, Clint Dempsey, aka Deuce:

At some point, I noticed a group of fans crowding around midfield where the locker room entrance was. So, I figured I would wait around and see if I could get some pics of the players leaving the locker room. Here's what I got:

Pavel Nedved:

Brian McBride:

Kasey Keller:

And Stacey's favorite, Clint Dempsey:

And here's a shot of the empty stadium. Veltins Arena is, I believe, the newest stadium in the Bundesliga:

Those were all the good memories of the game.

My camera battery ran out about this time but I also got to see Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Pope, Ben Olsen, Jimmy Conrad, Marcus Hahneman, Bobby Convey, Gooch, Claudio Reyna, John O'Brien, Josh Wolff, and the coach, Bruce Arena. Landon Donovan came out of the locker room with his head down, walked passed the fans, and almost didn't stop to sign autographs had he not noticed Keller already showing some fan love. Apparently, Arena had singled out Donovan and Beasely for their poor performances, which would explain Donovan's demeanor.

My next blog will highlight what went wrong during the match. I'm no expert, but there were some basic things that just weren't happening. I don't want to hate on the team too much because they really are great professionals. It was just extremely disappointing having traveled this far, paid a lot for tickets, and then see the team you've religously followed for the past 4 years play second rate soccer.